According to the Magazin news site, Zoran Zaev is planning to cut DUI out of his ruling coalition and is approaching both the Alliance of Albanians and BESA to replace the Albanian terrorist organization cum nationalist party with an extensive track record of corruption. Zaev asked for a meeting with the leaders of the two opposition Albanian parties Ziadin Sela (AA) and Bilal Kasami (BESA), ostensibly to ask for their support for his presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski in the second round of elections.
SDSM and DUI badly underperformed in the first round, losing 2/5 of their 2017 vote totals, which prompted an open fight between DUI and the Albanian wing in SDSM led by Muhamed Zekiri. According to Magazin, some in SDSM are thinking that by Zaev would be able to portray ending his cooperation with DUI as an anti-corruption move.
But losing the 10 DUI votes in Parliament would leave Zaev short of majority, even with the AA and BESA votes. According to the news site, Zaev was also approaching the nine former VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament who were dismissed from the party after voting to rename Macedonia. Zaev already has a relationship with the nine, who were pressured to vote in favor the the name “North Macedonia” with the use of politically driven criminal charges, and in some cases overt bribes. Some of them, like Krsto Mukoski, Ljuben Arnaudov and Saso Vasilevski, already negotiated pardons, while others like Elizabeta Kanceska Milevska are still faced with criminal persecution and could be easily pressured to vote with Zaev again.
According to Magazin, officials in SDSM were trying to draw conclusions from the humiliating results of the first round of presidential elections and were thinking in the direction that cutting DUI loose would improve the leftist party’s chances of winning back some of its supporters. This despite the fact that the now disappointed “Colored revolution” supporter who helped SDSM in the 2016 and 2017 elections and also voted in the failed 2018 referendum to rename Macedonia, is also loathe to accept releasing the nine former VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament from the lengthy prison sentences Zaev promised them, let alone bringing them in the Government.
The lure for the opposition Albanian parties would be to distribute most of the positions DUI now holds in the Government between them. AA and BESA are also accusing DUI of corruption and a number of high profile, long overdue criminal cases against DUI would poll well among the Albanian opposition supporters. Removing DUI from the coalition would open up the Speaker’s seat in the Parliament, two Deputy Prime Minister posts – for EU affairs and for minority rights and several Government departments. AA is especially interested in the Healthcare Ministry, which it briefly held in the first Zaev Government, but left to go to the opposition after clashing with DUI over the mayoral race in Gostivar.
According to Magazin, the downpayment Zaev asked for from AA and BESA is that they support Stevo Pendarovski as President in the second round and show him that they can mobilize more Albanian voters in his favor than DUI did in the underwhelming first round. The Albanian opposition called on its supporters to vote in the second round, without endorsing a candidate, and BESA also called for early general elections after the presidential elections are done.
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